Stephen Colbert on Salazar v. Buono Cross Case

October 14, 2009

Be sure to catch
this segment of last night's Colbert Report
. CFI filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case
Salazar v. Buono
, involving a Congressional legislative scheme to maintain an eight-foot Christian cross in California's Mojave National Preserve. Happily, I was at the Supreme Court last Wednesday on other business, and was privileged to watch in person the oral argument in the case. During argument, Justice Antonin Scalia made the outrageous assertion that the Christian cross is a non-sectarian indication of the "resting place" of the nation's war dead. I have seen no better deflation of this absurd claim than Colbert's comic commentary.

Keep an eye on the Secular Humanist Bulletin for my extended report on last Wednesday's oral argument.

Comments:

Excellent commentary from Colbert. I honestly don’t have any idea what Scalia was thinking. (Or perhaps better said, I have an idea, but don’t like what it implies about his understanding of the Constitution).

Scalia’s commentary was damning evidence of his poor understanding of the meaning of ‘Separation of Church and State’ Clarence Thomas’ silence (as usual) attitude speaks to me that he is far over his head in his positon as an associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

That problem has already been resolved elsewhere by allowing people from other faiths to post their own symbols. So then, we get a collections of crosses and Buddahs, etc. as well as various stars of five or six points displayed either upright or inverted and perhaps a goat head or two… such is a reflection of our current diversity and level of freedom. It’s all or nothing guys.

#4 Reid Ellis (Guest) on Friday October 16, 2009 at 8:27am

Alas, the Colbert video is not available outside the U.S. Can someone post a partial transcription?